Oscar Grant’s Mother Denied Right to Confront Her Son’s Murderer

Oscar Grant’s family is already suffering his loss after he was unarmed yet shot and killed by former transit officer Johannes Mehserle. Now, Grant’s mother does not even get the closure of confronting the man who killed her son because she and her family discovered that the killer was released from jail on Monday.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Cephus Johnson, Grant’s 53-year-old uncle says, “that officers ‘snuck’ Mehserle out of the courtroom, preventing the family from speaking at his release. Johnson said the court didn’t notify the family of Mehserle’s release until after he had left custody, depriving them of their right to address him before his release, as outlined in the Victims’ Bill of Rights.” Johnson made a special trip to the courthouse in order to testify under the Bill of Rights, but his efforts proved fruitless. Grant’s uncle nor his mother or any of the other family members, to this point, have had a chance to speak with Mehserle.